A Comparative Study of Particle Size Distribution of Graphene Nanosheets Synthesized by an Ultrasound-Assisted Method
Juan Amaro-Gahete,
Almudena Benítez,
Rocío Otero,
Dolores Esquivel,
César Jiménez-Sanchidrián,
Julián Morales,
Álvaro Caballero,
Francisco J. Romero-Salguero
Affiliations
Juan Amaro-Gahete
Departamento de Química Orgánica, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Almudena Benítez
Departamento de Química Inorgánica e Ingeniería Química, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Rocío Otero
Departamento de Química Inorgánica e Ingeniería Química, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Dolores Esquivel
Departamento de Química Orgánica, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
César Jiménez-Sanchidrián
Departamento de Química Orgánica, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Julián Morales
Departamento de Química Inorgánica e Ingeniería Química, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Álvaro Caballero
Departamento de Química Inorgánica e Ingeniería Química, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Francisco J. Romero-Salguero
Departamento de Química Orgánica, Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Química Fina y Nanoquímica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Córdoba, 14071 Córdoba, Spain
Graphene-based materials are highly interesting in virtue of their excellent chemical, physical and mechanical properties that make them extremely useful as privileged materials in different industrial applications. Sonochemical methods allow the production of low-defect graphene materials, which are preferred for certain uses. Graphene nanosheets (GNS) have been prepared by exfoliation of a commercial micrographite (MG) using an ultrasound probe. Both materials were characterized by common techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electronic Microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). All of them revealed the formation of exfoliated graphene nanosheets with similar surface characteristics to the pristine graphite but with a decreased crystallite size and number of layers. An exhaustive study of the particle size distribution was carried out by different analytical techniques such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) and asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (AF4). The results provided by these techniques have been compared. NTA and AF4 gave higher resolution than DLS. AF4 has shown to be a precise analytical technique for the separation of GNS of different sizes.
